Autonomous driving vehicles will become more and more popular in the near future. It is important that there is a system in place in the autonomous driving vehicles to handle transition from self-driving mode to user driving mode. For example, certain situations may arise during the autonomous driving phase that require a human's attention. For instance, the vehicle may be passing through a school zone, and under regulation, autonomous driving in the school zone is not permitted. Under such a situation, a human is required to regain control of the vehicle. That is, complete autonomous driving is not possible in all situations in the future. a challenge for addressing this is how to ensure a human in the autonomous driving vehicle is alert and ready to regain the control of the vehicle when such a situation arises.
Different solutions have been proposed to address the transition from autonomous driving to manual driving. For example, Tesla Autopilot system requires the user to touch the steering wheel and apply a mild torque every 1 minute or so. Cadillac's Super Cruise system monitors the user's eye gaze using a camera, and requires the user to look out the windshield every 15 seconds for the system to continue operation. Both systems start warning the user after their pre-set timeframes, and if these warnings are ignored, the system escalates the warnings until it deactivates the self-driving mode. These systems do not take into account personal performance or the different activities a user might be engaged while the vehicle is in self-driving mode. Some other systems employ other means to determine user's drowsiness level in order to recommend a stopover or rest time, but do not take any active mitigating measures.